Lieutenant Colonel Bergkamp was a Junker military aristocrat from the Grand Duchy of Hesse who had participated in the Franco-Prussian War on a grand scale and was experienced in dealing with such things.

"Snap" twice

Captain Bergkamp's pale face showed two distinct handprints, and he was slapped twice by Lieutenant Colonel Schmeichel before growling; "Drink this damn hot cup of coffee in your hand now, it will sober you up, hurry up!"

"Yes, sir."

Instinctively obedient to orders, Captain Bergkamp gulped down the hot coffee, a strange red on his pale face, and finally came to his senses.

"You need to get some rest, Mr. Captain, but before that, you have to tell me what the hell is going on?"

"Yes, yes, forgive me for my gaffes, sir, we have encountered a large number of enemy reinforcements......"

After learning more about the situation, Lieutenant Colonel Schmeichel realized that the landing force was in serious trouble, and that reinforcements from Moresby were moving faster than expected, and the counterattack was more aggressive.

None of this is a big problem, the landing force is confident enough to solve the other side.

The biggest problem is that the Miss Australia artillery, which once made the Royal Navy suffer greatly, appeared in the equipment of the enemy army, forming an absolute heavy firepower superiority, which is almost an unsolvable problem.

What should come is always coming, and these problems must be reported quickly.

Suddenly, the rain poured from around 5 p.m. until late at night, and after the clouds cleared and the rain stopped, the deep night sky was like a clear jewel and emitted a charming starlight.

The Dutch sappers fought in the jungle at night, the blazing torches illuminated the surrounding area of more than 100 meters, the soldiers pulled the sharp long saws shirtless, sweating and fighting, one after another big trees were rumbling down, and the road stretched forward.

It's about three o'clock in the night

The sappers who were struggling were attacked by the enemy, and the sound of gunfire pierced the silence of the night, knocking down several sappers who were struggling with them, and the camp was suddenly in chaos.

Hearing the sound, the guards immediately opened fire into the depths of the dense forest, but they did not dare to chase them out too far, and immediately retreated after only going more than 100 meters deep.

Half an hour later

When everything calmed down, the engineer battalion dared to continue with fear, but soon the attack occurred from the side, and the ongoing work was again interrupted.

After repeating this several times, the sky was already bright, and the construction progress was greatly slowed down.

The road work, which was originally planned to be a day and a half, was deliberately obstructed by the enemy for three and a half days, and the Dutch engineer battalion paid a heavy price of 21 casualties, and finally built an emergency military access road from Lucky Bay to Sandaoliang Village.

This is just the beginning of all catastrophe

The 8th Battalion of the 3rd Garrison Regiment and more than 1,000 militiamen who participated in the defense have completely renovated Sandaoliang Village in two days, and built more than 40 low breastwork walls with logs piled up in the timber yard, all of which are located under the stilted houses.

In addition, in the place more than 300 meters away from the south of the village entrance, six "∪" shaped earth and stone mixed barracks were built in a row, which were separated from each other by more than 100 meters, and the total length was about 700 meters of the forward defense line, showing a clear "two" shaped structure.

The long one below is the defensive chest wall of Sandaoliang Village, which is composed of more than 40 stilted houses and belongs to the second-line defensive position.

Other stilted houses have been demolished, some of which have been used to build forward fortifications, and some of which have been transported to the north of the stream, where a third line of defense is being built in full swing, and efforts are being made to use the terrain to increase the depth of the defense.

The short one above is a front-line position about 300 meters away, and each "∪" shaped mixed camp can accommodate more than 20 officers and soldiers to fight.

The barracks were covered by a rudimentary, triangular thatched pergola of the timber yard for shelter from the elements, and in front of it was a mixed earth-wood breastwork made of two layers of logs with two feet of wet mud in between, each with a hand-cranked Gatling heavy machine gun and 12 heavily armed men.

It seems that the reinforcements from Moresby have not been idle in the past two days, and thousands of sturdy soldiers have also fought at night, and a plain defensive fortress has begun to take shape.

In the middle of the jungle

A group of senior officers of the Royal Army of the Dutch East Indies were holding binoculars and carefully observing each other's defenses, and the relaxed look on their faces had long since disappeared and became solemn and serious.

"Hell, I smell the Germans from this defensive breastope, remembering that 12 years ago at the Battle of Walter in the Franco-Prussian War, the French heavy cavalry stormed the Bavarian strongholds, and it was this half-height breastop that strangely managed to reach the island of Iberia (Victoria) from thousands of miles away?"

"It's simple, there are damn Germans on the other side, and these war animals can be seen everywhere."

"Oh...... Excuse me sir, but to be precise, there should be a certain Junker military aristocrat of Bavaria, who does not represent the Germans, and the Archduke of Bavaria does not represent His Majesty Emperor Wilhelm I. ”

Colonel Heinrich, who commanded the Royal Dutch Upper IJssel Volunteer Barracks, behaved with gentlemanly demeanor, and then quickly showed the characteristic straightforwardness of the Germanic people; "On the contrary, I'm curious, you fucking rancid Dutchman, poor about to sell your ass, who gave you the confidence to dare to disrespect the great German Empire, I remember you damn bastard is still 276,000 gold marks short of the mercenary team, I need you to pay this money immediately, until then, my team will not be involved in any military operations, and I want to say that your mouth really stinks."

Before the battle began, several high-ranking officers in the jungle quarreled first, and Lord Smitt von Crawns, Colonel of the Royal Netherlands Army, as the military commander of the landing force, had to come forward to fight a round;

"Well, gentlemen, the humid and muggy climate in the jungle does make a fire rise, let's leave this unpleasant subject aside for the time being, Colonel Heinrich, also as a member of the Junker military aristocracy, can you get some contact with the military commander on the other side, the Governor's Palace will offer tempting enough conditions to believe that this will greatly reduce our casualties."

"I'm afraid I'm sorry to disappoint you, Lord Smitt von Crawens, the commander on the other side is likely to come from some Junker military nobleman in Bavaria, he will only be loyal to the Archduke of Bavaria, and I will only be loyal to the Archduke of Hesse, the Junker military aristocracy is only a general term for the feudal military lords with a martial tradition in the German region, I can send a letter asking for negotiations, but it does not mean that the other party will approve of it."

"Great, Colonel Heinrich, we need your help."

"I'm sorry Lord Lord, but the premise is to pay 276,000 German gold marks first, the advance mercenary team has suffered heavy casualties, they must get enough compensation, we will not participate in any action until then, and we will leave."

Colonel Heinrich walked away, leaving behind a group of angry Dutch officers, one of whom spat hard at his back.

"It's so damnable, these money-chasing bastards will be condemned, and I curse them to hell." The logistics officer scolded harshly.

"I don't know if Colonel Heinrich went to hell or not, the only thing I know now is...... Without the mercenary team to spearhead and do the dirty work, we need to gnaw this fortified area by ourselves. ”

Speaking of which

Lord Smit von Cloyns glared fiercely at the unscrupulous logistics officer; "Thank you for your cooperation, this cunning German can refuse to fight with a high-sounding excuse, may God forbid, this hard bone does not lose our teeth."

After some preparation

The official battle began at about 2 p.m., and more than 600 officers and men of the Royal Utrecht Grenadier Battalion of the Netherlands came out of the 1.5-kilometer-wide forest and marched in two sparse formations to the rhythmic music of the military band.

The distance from the forest to the first-line defensive position is about 500 meters, which is a short distance, and it only takes a few minutes to move forward quickly.

As soon as the infantry stepped out of the forest, the Royal Army's six 95mm field cannons roared and fired straight at the front-line positions with their muzzles in the forest.

The continuous sound of shelling "boom" sounded, and mud splashed near the reinforced breastwall of the front-line position, and four shells directly bombarded the reinforced breastwork, and the sawdust of the explosion flew one after another, and the sound was amazing.

But that's about it

The reinforced breastwall of the front-line positions withstood the test of shells, and the wet mud in the double logs was joined with thatch and bamboo, which was able to withstand the tremendous force of the shell explosion.

Li Xuanzhu, who was hiding behind the chest wall, was buzzing in his ears by the cannonballs, he shook his head vigorously, saw the command flag waving in the rear, and immediately ordered loudly; "Fire, beat these bastards."

The hand-cranked Gatling heavy machine gun on the position roared angrily, and the "Da Da ......" fired a hot projectile, like a fire scythe like a god of death swept over, and six heavy machine guns and dozens of cavalry rifles formed a dense fire network, constantly knocking down the opposing attacking infantry, and blood spattered on the spot.

In the loose ranks of the Dutch, the infantry continued to be shot and fell, and at this time, the Australian Miss artillery of the defending side also roared, firing fierce shells straight into the forest, and the bushes and leaves of the "tom tom tom" exploded, and the stumps and broken arms were thrown high, and the forest was in a mess.

The artillery of both sides was all flattened and fired directly, with amazing accuracy, equivalent to artillery fighting bayonets, in this artillery dialogue, Miss Australia won a complete victory, 4 guns poured more than 40 shells in one minute, blowing up three guns of the Royal Netherlands Army, and no loss of its own.

The Dutch failed in their first attack, hastily leaving behind nearly 80 corpses and retreating into the forest, where they recuperated for a second time.